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MGM Mirage Touts Diversification Push

LAS VEGAS - Its record has improved, but MGM Mirage has a distance to go before it is signing deals with a healthy number of minority-run companies.

That was the message delivered Monday by the casino giant's top executive and the director of the local chapter of the Urban Chamber of Commerce.

"There are no quick fixes and no magic remedies to address these issues," said MGM Mirage Chairman Terry Lanni. "As a company, as a community and as a nation we have a long way to go."

Lanni delivered his remarks to a lunchtime gathering of 250 vendors, contractors and MGM Mirage executives who attended what was billed as the company's first annual diversity report luncheon.

Hannah Brown, president of the Urban Chamber's local organization and a McCarran International Airport executive, later echoed Lanni's sentiment.

"Sometimes it bothers us that MGM (Mirage) gets heat," she said. "They're the only one that's appearing to do something. I'd like to see other properties step up and say, 'Me too,' and, 'That will happen.' "

Earlier this month, the Rev. Al Sharpton led 60 placard-carrying protesters outside of MGM Mirage's MGM Grand, where they argued that the state's largest employer, with 35,000 workers, must stop discriminating against black workers and black-owned businesses.

The Urban Chamber's Brown rejects that confrontational approach.

"I don't like mudslinging. I can't see that it serves any purpose," she said.

MGM Mirage executives began a publicized diversification push two years ago when the company was formed from MGM Grand's buyout of Mirage Resorts. At the time, critics questioned the company's commitment to minority hiring and contracting.

Since then, the company has created a diversity committee headed by Alexis Herman, a former labor secretary in the Clinton administration, who is black.

MGM Mirage executives also say they have aggressively worked to sign deals with minority-owned companies that could provide goods and services.

At Monday's luncheon, Lanni said his company's Clark County gaming properties spent about $445 million last year on goods and services up for bid.

An estimated $24.3 million, or 5 percent, of that figure was spent with minority-owned businesses.

"With 28 percent of Clark County comprised of minorities," Lanni said, "we should be doing a lot more than 5 percent of our total business with women- and minority-owned firms."

But there is a roadblock, Lanni and Brown agreed: A large percentage of the city's minority-owned businesses lack the size and expertise to fill sizable contracts.

"It's a learning process for them, a learning process for us," Brown said. "What we're trying to do is work it through. We realize there are deficiencies."

Brown recently introduced MGM Mirage bosses to the operators of RSNO, a minority-owned provider of restaurant supplies.

"Our challenge," Brown said, "is to help the MGM Grand put together a good list of aspiring entrepreneurs."

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